Can/should my estate agent give me info on the full purchase chain?

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81989460#Comment_81989460

Circumstances can change very quickly, even your own.

Be careful what you wish for!

TheJP

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81989460#Comment_81989460

The point I’m making is that no matter how much you bemoan the system, if the opportunity arises you WILL use the system to benefit your interests. The current system does have a system to lock in the purchase (exchange of contracts).

jez9999

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81989838#Comment_81989838

Not much of a point, is it?

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81989668#Comment_81989668

Of course that can happen here. A very small % of sales fail between exchange and completion. It is usually because the buyer pulls out and they lose their deposit( normally 10%) .

GeneralJoe

The earlier replies are right that DPA stops you getting names and personal details — but the question's a bit too narrowly framed. There's a useful distinction between personal info (DPA-protected) and transactional info (totally fair game), and most of what you actually need to assess chain risk is the second.

For each property in your chain, your agent can legitimately ask their counterpart and feed back to you:

• Selling agent + the Rightmove/Zoopla listing
• Date sale was agreed (how long it's been SSTC)
• Buyer type: FTB / chain / cash / investor
• Mortgage status: agreement in principle vs full offer received
• Searches ordered Y/N, survey instructed Y/N
• Solicitor firm name (a business contact, not personal data)

None of that is DPA-protected because it's transactional. Agents share this with each other constantly — yours just needs to ask. Your instinct to ask for at least the agents and properties down the chain is reasonable; push beyond that to the bullet list above.

The bigger lever no one's mentioned: your solicitor should be doing a weekly chain progress check — a structured request to the solicitors directly above and below, who pass it on. That's standard, not DPA-bothered, and it's normally where chain risk surfaces first. If yours isn't doing it, ask them to and specifically request a "where is each link up to" status (instructed → searches → draft contract → enquiries → report on title → ready to exchange).

On the bottom-link risk — which is what burned you last time — the strongest predictor of a fall-through is "FTB without a full mortgage offer, 6+ weeks SSTC". Get those two data points on the bottom buyer via the agent-to-agent route and you've covered 80% of the risk without breaching anything.

Last tip: stick every property in your chain into Property Log (free). It shows listing history, so you can see if any link has fallen through and been re-listed before. Strong red flag if so.

jez9999

@GeneralJoe Bloody useful stuff, thanks.

jez9999

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81993470#Comment_81993470

Well, I asked my agent and got back:

"I cannot pass on the address/Rightmove links/solicitors of other parties in the chain to yourself."

Then got a more vague update on where the other parties in the chain were in the process.

GeneralJoe

That response from your agent is fairly normal. They are unlikely to share addresses, listing links or solicitor details for the rest of the chain, so I wouldn’t focus too much on getting that information.

The more reasonable request is a proper chain update. I’d ask:

• how many links are in the chain

• whether the bottom buyer is first-time, cash, or also in a chain

• whether the bottom buyer has a full mortgage offer

• how long the bottom property has been sold subject to contract

• what stage each link has reached, such as solicitors instructed, searches, survey, enquiries, or ready to exchange

That gives you the information you actually need to judge the risk, without asking for personal data.

If the agent can’t give a clear update, I’d ask your solicitor to do a weekly chain check through the legal side. In practice, that can often give a more accurate picture than the agent.

jez9999

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999763#Comment_81999763

So why did you suggest I request that information then??! I already have that more vague information. You suggested way more stuff. Rightmove links, estate agents, solicitor firm names, etc.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999763#Comment_81999763

 whether the bottom buyer is first-time, cash, or also in a chain

If the bottom buyer is in a chain, then they are not the bottom buyer.

Regarding the suggested requests for all those details from an EA, I would not hold my breath waiting for all the answers.

If the agent can’t give a clear update, I’d ask your solicitor to do a weekly chain check through the legal side

Considering the number of complaints about many solicitors being very slow to respond about anything, often for weeks at a time, the chances of them doing this must be pretty low. I suspect even the good ones would not be happy spending a lot of time on this .